Bollywood. It’s known for its larger-than-life stories, macho heroes, damsels in distress, catchy tunes, stunning locations…and filmy clichés!
The mass entertainers that dominate theatres and our screens usually have the same base plot with a few variations here and there. Many times, the writers copy previous work or films from the West without any subtlety. This over-use of certain writing styles or scenes happen in all genres from action to romance to dramas.
Sometimes these clichés work, if the story is written well and they need the cliché to move the plot ahead it’s fine. But when the whole film is one big cliché from start to finish to the point you can predict the ending from the trailer itself then it’s a problem and just shows how lazy and unoriginal the writing is.
One of the main reasons clichés, despite being so passé, work is because of the actors playing the roles or the director filming it. Many times the actors have a fan following that expect a certain kind of “role” from them that they have to deliver or in case of a director, the tropes are just associated with the director’s style of film making making them an essential part of the film.
Some of the most common tropes used in Hindi films are:
1. The hero will stalk the girl in the name of love until she falls in love with him.
2. When there’s a pivotal moment between the leads, it always rains!
3. The not-so-subtle bumping into one another at a college/canteen/library, dropping your books and falling in love at first sight.
4. The Hulk-esque villain and his gang of side-kicks that’s defeated by the lean hero all alone in the climax.
5. The ultimate declaration of love. Running through an airport only to find that the main character never boarded the flight!
These are just some of the over-used clichés in Hindi films that lack inspiration but the list is endless. These tropes need to be done away with ASAP and instead more focus should be put on writing meaningful stories that have less masala and more substance.
Tell us which overused cliché you are fed up of in the comments below!
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